I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a video surveillance system.
II. Description of Related
In order to combat crime, many establishments, such as retail establishments, office buildings, and the like utilize video surveillance cameras to monitor the premises. Oftentimes, the output from the video camera is recorded using video recording equipment while, in other cases, security personnel view monitors from the video cameras in an effort to police the premises and reduce crime.
Many of these previously known surveillance cameras, however, are simply placed in open view on the premises. This, however, suffers from two disadvantages.
One disadvantage of openly mounted video surveillance cameras is that criminals, noting the position of the video cameras, are frequently able to evade the video camera by carefully moving around the video camera. For example, for a video camera mounted on the exterior of a building at an elevated height and facing downwardly, seasoned criminals are able to evade the camera by merely walking closely along the side of the building.
A still further disadvantage of these openly mounted video cameras is that the video cameras are subject to attack by criminals in an effort to disable the camera. Since video cameras are relatively delicate electronic instruments, merely striking the video camera with a blunt instrument, such as a metal bar, is sufficient to disable the camera.
The present invention provides a surveillance system which overcomes all of the above-mentioned disadvantages of the previously known devices.
In brief, the surveillance system of the present invention comprises an elongated tubular housing having a planar back wall, a pair of spaced side walls and a front wall extending between the side walls. This front wall includes a portion which extends obliquely with respect to the plane of the back wall. Furthermore, the back wall, side walls and front wall of the housing form an interior housing chamber.
An opening is formed in the oblique portion of the front wall of the housing. A video camera having a lens is then mounted within the interior of the housing so that the camera lens is aligned with the opening in the oblique housing portion. The video camera provides an output signal representative of the view as seen by the camera lens. This camera output signal is coupled to conventional video processing equipment, such as video monitors, a video recorder or the like.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, a transparent, but tinted, shield is disposed along the oblique wall portion. This transparent shield not only obscures the housing opening, and thus the camera lens, from view but also renders the overall housing decorative in appearance.
The housing back wall is then secured to a stationary structure, such as a building wall, so that the elongated housing has the appearance of a decorative strip on the structure. Since the housing is secured to the structure, the housing remains both stationary and protects the interior camera from attack. Furthermore, since the entire housing has the overall appearance of a decorative strip, even seasoned criminals will be unaware that the housing contains a camera and thus be unable to avoid the video camera.